


The Beach

by Pyrotechnics_Service



Category: American Gods - Neil Gaiman, Death Stranding (Video Games)
Genre: Brief Fanboying Over Egyptian Gods, Gen, Near Death, Near Death Experiences, it's basically just higgs rambling and shadow being the good ass listener he is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:41:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29927361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyrotechnics_Service/pseuds/Pyrotechnics_Service
Summary: Shadow spills over into other times when he's on the tree.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	The Beach

Shadow slept. 

And as he slept, he tasted salt and sand.

When he opened his eyes, he was on an eternal beach. 

Somehow, he knew it was eternal. If he tried to wade out into the water, or run along the east or west, or try to journey into the mountains behind him, 

He’d end up right back here. 

On the beach.

Facing the cloudy horizon with the light reflecting off the sad waves.

Next to him was a rock, and on that rock was a man. 

His face was covered over with ugly black tar, and the black cloak he wore was covered in sand.

Shadow looked at him, and he looked at Shadow.

He smiled a not quite grin. “Hey. Been a while since I’ve seen someone here.” He spoke with a rusty twang, an old Southern lean that was covered by disuse and disinterest. “Ready to leave? To shuffle off this mortal coil? Don’t worry, there’s no sharks out there.”

Shadow said nothing. The look on the man’s face faded into apathy, and he turned back towards the water. “No. You’re not from here. Not from my world. You’re from the Old World. Sometimes they come here. All lost and wet and confused and I’m the one that has to greet them.”

He shook his head, and tears rolled down his face. Inky, thick, black tears. “Aw, you got me cryin’. I’m such a bleeding heart.”

He brought up the corner of his cloak and wiped the tears away, cutting savage lines through the grime. When he was done, his face had changed again and he looked over at Shadow with a brightness in his eyes. “Other gods, they're real? You’ve met them. I can sense it on you.”

Shadow shrugged.

“Can you put in a good word?” Another smile, this time of boyish glee. “With Horus? Or Thoth? Tell ‘em I’m stuck here?”

Shadow shrugged again. He wasn’t sure if he could.

“Eh, just as well.” the man turned away, curled up into his cloak. “I probably sold my soul away, and now it’s too late to change sides. 

“Guess you’re here on a technicality,” he said. “You’re thiiiiiiiis close to death,” he held his fingers a bare centimeter apart, squeezing his pupil in the center. “And you’re spillin’ over into other times. Other bits of America.”

Shadow remained quiet for a moment. He looked away, towards the ocean. It was beautiful, a melancholic grace that he couldn't put his finger on. The stained man dropped his hand and sighed. He stretched out on the rock, his joints cracking one two three times, and stared up at the sky. 

“Are you a god?” Shadow asked. 

The man laughed. It was a hollow, mirthless sound, full of self-pity and regrets. “I thought I was. Sure dressed myself up like one. Nah, I’m more the lapdog. The servant. The herald of the real goddess.”

“Will I meet her?” Shadow asked, but he already knew the answer.

“No,” the man said. “She’s on Her beach. Another Beach. She’ll end the world, y’know. Someday. And then I’ll have _lots_ of company. For a tiny while. And then they’ll all wade into the sea, and I’ll still be here. On the Beach. But you’ll be dead before the first Stranding even happens.” 

Shadow nodded. 

“Well, I guess _now_ I'm a god. Not a worshiped one or anything. Not the particle of god that permeates all existence. But I’m always here, on the Beach, and I watch over people as they go. Like a protector, some angel of death. Not what I signed up for, but it’s something, right? But soon nobody will be goin’. I’ll be _really_ alone, with only my sins to comfort me.”

Another dry laugh. 

“Guess it’s what I deserve. You ever watch someone die? The life leave their body? Probably not. The time I come from, after you die and rot for a while, you blow up. _Pop_ like a balloon. Killing allllllll these people, and then just your soul bounces back. Wanderin’ around forever. At least until Sammy boy cut your cord, or threw some of his blood at you. Sam was good at those things. No wonder I hated him.” 

“Are you going to kill me?” Shadow asked. He’d accepted his fate long ago. 

“No, I couldn’t. You’re already dead anyway. But listening to me is probably a death in itself.”

“No, it’s not.” It wasn’t a lie. It was a distraction from the pain at least. "It's interesting."

“Really? Aw, thanks for listening to the god particle.” There was a scraping against the rock, and Shadow’s wonderful view of the ocean was covered.

A golden skull mask, just the jaw, was hovering in front of him

“Here. Take it. It's a gift. Well, it might hurt you. But I can't really give anything but pain.” 

The dull pain of the ropes was growing back in Shadow’s arms, and he opened his mouth to protest. His throat dried and cracked, and the wind began to leech back into his bones.

The mask came to him, floating towards him, consuming his vision.

“If Anubis does call you, to measure your sins,” the voice was growing faded, jaded, tumbling away. “Say that I’m sorry I couldn’t go to him myself. That Ammut couldn’t devour Higgs Monaghan’s heart.”

The gold touched his face, and his flesh burned and smoked.

* * *

  
When Shadow was driving north, towards Lakeside, he found a golden skull mask in the trunk of his car.

Just the jaw. 

It glittered and shone, and Shadow knew it was something to be kept. 

For a split second he remembered the man on the Beach, forever sitting alone on the rock.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, though later he wasn’t sure why. “I forgot. But I might make it to the Stranding after all.”

Then it faded from his mind and he shut the trunk.

**Author's Note:**

> When I woke up today, I did not set out to write American Gods/Death Stranding fic but here we are. 
> 
> Don't mind Shadow, he's a good listener. Also someone get Higgs Mr. Ibis' autograph.


End file.
